News from Caroline Russell (City Hall (19 April 2017) : Outer Londoners left out again as junctions review favours inner city

Caroline Russell AM has challenged Will Norman over the Mayor’s failure to make outer London junctions less hostile and better for people to walk and cycle around as inner London gets the lion’s share of improvements.

Will Norman, the Mayor’s new Walking and Cycling Commissioner, met the London Assembly today for the first time today after announcing the Mayor will focus overwhelmingly on improving central and inner London junctions.

Caroline quizzed Mr Norman over the junctions under review, of the 33 due to be made safer by TfL, only two – one each in Croydon and Redbridge – are in outer London.

Caroline said:

I was pretty disappointed in the answers I heard today, outer Londoners are being sidelined yet again.

It’s all very well looking to prioritise bad junctions but the reason more places in outer London don’t come up in TfL’s safety record stats is that they are so dangerous that people are too frightened to even attempt to walk or cycle there.

This just isn’t fair to people who live in outer London, they have been condemned to relying on cars for years to come because their streets are too hostile for them to get around on foot and by bike.

Under the previous Mayor 80% of cycling funding was spent in inner and central London when two thirds of walking and cycling potential lies in the outer boroughs – today’s announcement is no better and wilfully ignores the amazing potential for change in outer London.

Of the 73 junctions identified by their poor safety records:

21 were improved by the previous Mayor – only two in outer London

33 junctions are due to be improved – only two in outer London

19 new junctions will be reviewed – only two in outer London

Caroline Russell is developing proposals for an investigation into improving junctions across London.